Germany revealed 7 of their 8 acts for this year's national final. And as it's the country I know best when it comes to music (yes, I know it better than the Dutch music scene...), I wanted to introduce all acts to you.

I'll do that in comments on this post!

Das Gezeichnete Ich

The most unknown name to us of all of these. I actually needed to check several sites to see who this was. Result: his real name isn't publicly known... It's a male solo singer and has only released three singles that made somewhat of an impact on the music scene, most remarkable song must be Du, Es Und Ich (Eng: You, It And Me). It reminds me of Kaere Farmor, Du Som Er I Herlev by Sys Bjerre (some of you will remember that song, it represented Eigerland in #19 of the contest, coming third) - I first thought it was a cover. But here's that song:

Oceana

The biggest shock on the list: Oceana. Some might call her a has-been, but if you ask me, she never really was big. She had her opportunity to become huge in Europe when they asked her to do the official Euro 2012 song and she did score quite a hit with her Endless Summer, but she has failed to convince anyone ever since.
Still, she does have some international appeal hidden somewhere, so what we can expect from her isn't too clear...
But for now: let's look back at Euro 2012 with Oceana's Endless Summer.

Santiano

I burst out in laughter when I saw this. Absolutely hilarious that these guys made it to the national final. It's an all-male group, all singers are between 35 and 60 and it's... an odd bunch. They combine (or try to combine) Irish folk, shanties, schlager and German folk music and they end up with songs that mostly sound like the old shanties.
Now I'm not seeing this as a favourite for the victory, but these guys have only released 2 albums and both shot to #1 on the album charts immediately. But I don't think they can impress the general audience.
As for the song I chose: just a recent video, Frei Wie Der Wind. It's also very typical for their style.

I've found a link to our contest for this group as well. In #52, Moldijan entered Faun with their song Tanz Mit Mir. The male singer in that song is, and I'm surprised he wasn't credited, from Santiano.

Madeline Juno

Well talking about the contest! Madeline Juno is an 18 year old singer from the South West of Germany. She's rather new to the German music scene: she released her first single in June 2013 and got a record deal later that year. Her biggest chart success in Germany was Error, a song that we should all know as Custonia entered that in #57 of the contest. I can therefore not say anything about the song, except for the fact that it reached #50 in the German single charts.



Off topic, but this means that for the second year in a row, Custonia managed to enter an artist in the contest that later turned out to be in the German national final: last year it was Mia Diekow, now Madeline Juno.

MarieMarie

And let's stay with the contest! 29 year old Maria Scheiblhuber is a rather special artist. She's a harp player, but she describes her own style as Folktronic-pop: a combination between folk, electronic music and pop. So we don't really know what to expect from her, she might even bring her harp and do some acoustic song on stage there. But for now, the best reference to her style is Villa Badia's #52 entry, Under The Neon Sky.
As for her popularity, not really sure about that. She doesn't have much success in charts, but she must have a very loyal fanbase.

The Baseballs

This one blew me away. The Baseballs are quite big in Holland and apparently in Scandinavia they scored some hits as well? They're most known for their rockabilly/rock'n'roll covers of big hits. Their biggest success dates back to 2009: they covered Rihanna's Umbrella and actually scored a huge hit with it.
Their album Strike! was released in 2009 (Germany, Switzerland and Austria) and 2010 in the UK. It reached the top 10 in all countries, with a fourth position in the album chart in the UK as the most remarkable result.
Their popularity hasn't been as big as it has been in the past, but the same went for Cascada. And they still won the thing in Hannover. So who knows...
For now, here's Umbrella!

Unheilig

Last, but most certainly not least: Unheilig. I know they underperformed in our contest: they came sixteenth in #55, but they are huge in Germany.
The band was formed around Der Graf, a man who has never really been willing to say his real name anywhere. (In the meanwhile, people seem to have found out he's called Bernd Graf though.)
They've scored quite a few hits, like So wie Du warst, Geboren um zu leben, Winter and Unter deiner Flagge. The last song won the 2010 Bundesvision Song Contest.
Their style is a mixture of pop, Neue Deutsche Härte, rock and more melodic gothic stuff. Whatever their song sounds like, they are without a doubt the ones to beat in March. But we saw last year, the biggest name for the Germans (Söhne Mannheims) didn't impress that much and finished third.
So, to listen to one entry: here's So wie Du warst, the song Curtis sent to the contest.